The Paris Catacombs are an extensive underground ossuary that originated in the 18th century as a solution to the city’s overcrowded cemeteries. For many years, Parisians buried their dead in the Cemetery of the Innocents, which eventually became so congested it caused unpleasant odors and raised public health concerns. Authorities sought a way to relocate millions of skeletal remains to alleviate the problem.
Stephanie H. Smith delves into the history of this unique underground network, explaining how the remains were transferred to tunnels beneath the city to create the catacombs. This vast subterranean site has since become a haunting symbol of Paris’s past, revealing the challenges of urban burial practices in earlier centuries and the city's innovative response to a public health crisis.